Italy Travel Tips: Venice edition

What to eat while in Venice? Don't miss Cichetti, traditional Venetian snack-bites meant to be grabbed on the go. The best place we found for Cichetti was near the Rialto Fish Market - affordable, tasty and delicious. Real meal pictured below.

Unfortunately with the exception of Cichetti, most of the restaurants you see in Venice are expensive and touristic in nature. Venice is a place to feast your eyes and not necessarily your stomach, so plan accordingly. If you want to go on a culinary vacation, consider other destinations like Modena or Florence.

If you plan to get to most sights early (9:30 AM for St Mark's Cathedral is when they open, so being there for 9 AM, or 8:30 AM is when the Doge's Palace opens, so being there for 8 AM) you'll get to see the amazing sights with a minimal amount of guests ahead of you in vast numbers. A lot of cruises set down in Venice for the day, with their thousands of passengers, who then start walking very slowly in front of you - not ideal. Plan on being an early bird or a night owl to experience minimal congestion (*although - disclaimer - most restaurants and bars will close after 8 or 9 PM).

One of the most iconic Venetian arts is glass and glassmaking! If you want to experience the full classic glass art form, the best place to see that done today is a daytrip to the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon. However, if you want to stick to the main island, the best artisan I've seen there working in glass still is Mirco Rosso. Below you can see him at work in his shop making exquisite tiny glass creations, located conveniently near the Rialto Bridge.

Getting lost is seriously part of the charm of Venice, and Google maps is not accurate, so plan on giving yourself time to wander the back ways. We went on a "ghosts and legends" tour of Venice, which was fascinating to learn about the history of the city, from such colorfully named streets as the "Land of Assassins" to the Venice Vampire.

Definitely budget to go on a gondola ride (from 80-100 euros depending on time of day). With only 500 operating gondolas still in existence, it's a must-experience. We wanted one with a singing gondolier or accordionist, but a regular gondolieri was just fine.

If you haven't loaded up your suitcase with too many glass souvenirs, you may want to bring back some examples of classic Venetian mask artistry. If you look, there are still craftspeople making the traditional masks and other related works of art in Venice. We loved the work of Bluemoon, a wonderful traditional mask shop right across the street from Mirco Rosso.

I never really thought of myself as a backpacking tourist, but, I traveled throughout Italy with a backpack. LOL At the time I did not realize how St. Marks is a big deal stop. Not into big crowds but hanging out in that piazza let me envision myself on the set of the next James Bond movie. hahahah

One of my main inspirations to visit Italy and specifically Venice was when I was working as a chauffeur in college and our clients back then were Old Money and one of my regulars emphatically shared that I must see Florence before I die and before Florence sinks away forever. Funny how that seed was planted and ten years later there I was.

St. Mark's Basilica is beautiful. When I worked at SmugMug, I would be swept away by the detail in some cathedrals which was hard to see in photos on our screens, so I would take multiple photos and stitch them together into a high-res panorama that that we could print huge on the walls — up to 150 inches high. Then you would see all kinds of detail emerge.

I shot many frames of St. John's with the intent to make a pano, but made one of the Duomo cathedral in Milan instead. Here are some of the frames I shot of St. John's:

Back when I was planning my first ever visit to La Serenissima, I was inundated by unsolicited commentary from various friends, mostly moaning about how it is the most expensive and megatouristic place i Europe and canals smell and whatnot. Coffee at 15 euro a pop featured prominently in those anecdotes.

While some of the epithets might be true (as they are for any hugely (and deservedly) popular tourist places), all of the bad stuff is easily avoided with a little planning and some common sense. But on the topic of coffee, it's NOT really that expensive, and not even necessarily in the touristic places. Thing is, if you enter a coffee place and look around, you will be able to find a plaque or piece of paper stating terms of service. You will also notice that the locals, if any, drink their espresso at the counter. If you look at the terms of service, you will discover that an excellent espresso by itself would cost, I dunno these days, let's say 1 euro. However if you sit down at a table inside, your costs immediately jump +3-5 euros. And if you sit at a table *outside*, that's another 4-6 euros. (you may have to adjust numbers for inflation, but the idea is the same). And that's how you end up with a 15-euro espresso. There's nothing bad in that in itself, sitting at an outside table in the early morning sun at St.Mark square nursing an espresso is well worth it as a one-off experience, but don't let that be your gold standard or turn you away from the city.

As to the the food in general, the situation is a bit complex. It's not the food is *bad*. It's perfectly fine, if somewhat non-trivial to find because of the tourist-induced mediocreness. But it is also not exactly for everyone's tastes - polenta, fried sardines, chopped liver, all heavy with onions, etc. And also due to the island logistics of the place, good food is really expensive.

And do pay attention to the sweets! They are often amazing, and for a really tasty and surprising souvenir, do buy some mostarda di frutta! It's essentially a sort of fruit jam with mustard in it :)

SUCH A GOOD TIP on the outdoor seating fees. This is so true - you may have seen the hubbub around a 43 euro bill for 2 waters and 2 coffees last year. The biggest fee jump will be found in the cafes around St. Mark's Square, but any ideal seating arrangement in a major tourist destination in Europe will usually involve additional fees.

The complaints about the prices in the Piazza San Marco have always struck me as a little strange, sort of like complaining that the Cable Car in San Francisco is too slow. You're not paying for coffee or beer, you're paying for sitting in the Piazza San Marco at Quadri or Florian, both of which are several hundred years old. That may or may not mean anything to you, and if it doesn't then by all means don't stop there--there's plenty of decent coffee available for a few Euros elsewhere.

I think that many travelers are just so tired / overwhelmed that they want to get a coffee at XYZ location. Paying for the privilege of sitting when you have sore feet or using the bathroom if you have to wee can be worth it!